Agony in Albany - The Roman Catholic Faithful

Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc. / AMDG May 2004 Albany newsletterexpected to see anything like this here.”Catholics like Tom Coffey are afraid thatthere will be many more events like that, not only inthe cathedral, but in other parish churches, which areofficially encouraged to hold ecumenical servicesthroughout the year on various holidays and holydays.“Sensitivity”According to Rooted in Faith, the diocesanguidelines for ecumenical relations and education,“interfaith awareness” is to be a regular part of religiouseducation for Albany Catholic children, beginningin the primary grades and extending throughhigh school. The guidelines were published in 1989.In the chapter on “Etiquette,” under the sectionon interfaith services, Catholics are advised to beparticularly sensitive to others’ beliefs.For example, in services with Jews, the nameof God is not to be mentioned, and Catholics are toavoid saying “Christ,” or invoking the Holy Trinity.Also, Catholics are to make sure no hymns have referencesto Christ or to the Trinity, and the New Testamentshould be referred to as the “apostolic writings.”“Conflict And Confroliltation”Bishop Hubbard’s good relations with Jewshas been a hallmark of his episcopacy, and a prioritysince his installation.In April, 1986, he stunned some AlbanyCatholics when, at a Palm Sunday service for Catholicsand Jews, he blamed the Catholic Church for nurturinganti-Semitism.Tom Coffey was one of the stunned. Coffeytold The Wanderer that the Bishop said the NaziHolocaust was basically a development of Christianattitudes.“The Nazi Holocaust,” said Hubbard, wholater printed his speech in The Evangelist, “is knownby almost all Christians who find it to be a source ofshock, shame, embarrassment, and revulsion. Butwhat is not known, understood, or appreciated by thevast majority of Christians is the tragic history whichpaved the way for this atrocity. From the beginning ofthe common era, Jews and Christians have lived in anatmosphere of conflict and confrontation. The Gospelof John, for example, witnesses to the bitter oppositionthat enabled the evangelist to equate ‘the Jews’with ‘the enemy,’ with little need to make distinctionsor to qualify individuals.“In the second century, Marcion contrastedthe God of the Jews with the God of Jesus andpointed out that the Jewish covenant retained flawsthat the Christian covenant had transcended, St. JohnChrysostom, a Father of the Church, assailed Jewswho, he maintained, were attempting to disrupt theunity of the young Christian community.“Medieval philosophers and theologians intensifiedthe conflict by presenting a vision of divineorder wherein everything centered on the person ofJesus. In that vision, Jews and others had no placeexcept as counterpoints to the harmony being promoted.“Persecutions, therefore, took on a new anddeadly vigor. . .and the denial of civil rights and imposedghettos by Catholic governments through thelast century all coalesced to support, at least implicitly,Nazi efforts to eliminate Jews from Europeansociety.“It is imperative, therefore, that Catholicsinsert the complete and unvarnished record of Jewishpersecution into our history books and religionclasses, and acquaint ourselves with the systematicdegradation of the Jewish people and with the factthat up to 10 million Jews were murdered in the centuriesbefore the Holocaust.“It is only when this history is understood —a history I must confess I never learned in my 16years of Catholic school education — that we asCatholic Christians can begin to come to grips withthe roots of anti-Semitism and the Church’s complicitywith such, and then take the appropriate steps torid ourselves of this appalling legacy of religiousprejudice. . . .”In April, 1989, it was announced that BishopHubbard would be the recipient of the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai B'Rith's annual AmericanismAward.“Everything he does in community work is anextension of a lot of work we do,” said Sandra LeeKlein. “It is natural we would commend someone ofhis caliber. . . .”In October, 1989, it was made public that theformer St. Lawrence Church and rectory across theriver in Troy would be converted to a combinationsynagogue-school.“The Pretzel”Also in 1989, a huge 16-foot iron “sculpture”63